Scout

Overview

1904 - 1923

William Burden, with his sons William and Albert, had been producing clocks in Salisbury since 1885, before diversifying into the production of marine and stationary engines in 1902. Their first motorcycle was made in 1903 and a prototype car, with 2-cylinder engine and pressed steel chassis, the following year, when Percy Dean, a landowner from from Chitterne, helped finance the firm's expansion into a limited company. The range of private cars available in 1909 ran from a 10hp 2-cylinder at £265 up to the 40hp 6-cylinder, priced from £730 according to bodywork. From 1910 onwards they concentrated more on commercial vehicles.

Percy Dean left in 1911 and Clifford Radcliffe took his place on the board, taking the company through World War I contracts for military workshop equipment, shells and magnetic mine mechanisms. The factory was expanded in 1915, but the extra space was not matched by demand for a car of prewar design.

Some 1500 vehicles had been constructed in total, of which two or three cars survive.